Airians

[AndreiChekov]

So, people were talking about the failure of Raptorans, and how a flying at level 1 race was needed, so I figured I would give it a try.

Fluff
When Urukesh the Warlord descended on the human city of Afir, the humans knew that they were doomed. His army numbered 10 thousand, and their city had 2000 inhabitants total. Desperate for a solution the cheif cleric of Obad-Hai set up a ritual to beg Obad-Hai for aid. The ritual made a portal to the Elemental Plane of Air. Just as he was about to summon elementals to fight the orcs, a sharp sound like thunder shook the city, and streaks of light shot out of the portal. They struck each of the
humans in the city. Immediately they grew wings. The humans all flew out of the city, leaving an empty shell for the orcs.
This is taught to all Airian children. Airians are the descendants of these humans. They have since that time lost the ingenuity and versitality of humans, but they have grown closer and closer to the air elementals that their wings were taken from.
They have wings, sharp faces, hooked noses, but other than that look exactly like humans, and vary as much as they do.

Mechanics
Medium size

Humanoid with the Air subtype

+2 Dex, -2 Int - Most air elementals are very nimble, and borderline retarded. This rubs off on the Airians.

Land Speed 30 ft.

Fly Speed 30 ft. with average maneuverability
-Airians cannot fly while carrying a medium or heavy load.
- If an Airian falls for any reason, he never takes more than 1d6 of falling damage
- While flying, Airians cannot use spells, abilities, activated items, or attack. At 3rd level, this restriction is lifted.
- At 6th level, their fly speed increases to 60 ft. with perfect maneuverability

Wing Aided Jump
- All jumps made by Airians count as if they had a running start, and they get a +10 racial bonus to jump checks.

Darkvision 60 ft.

Minor Elemental Traits
- +2 to saving throws against poison, sleep, paralysis, and stunning.

And a special feat
True Blood of the Elemental [Monstrous]
-You become a full elemental gaining the elemental traits. (Immunity to poison, sleep, paralysis, and stunning; don't eat sleep or breathe; immune to crits and flanking; Can only be raised by a limited wish, wish, miracle, or true resurrection.)

Class Variant Option
Prereq: Any class that grants proficiency in heavy armour.
Lose: Proficiency in heavy armour.
Gain: You can fly in medium armour, or while carrying a medium load.

So, with all of that, do you guys think that the flight is acceptable? Also, would anyone ever take that feat?[/b]

EDIT: Made a mistake with tags

[Gnorman]

This is a very, very unfortunate name for a race.

[AndreiChekov]

This is a very, very unfortunate name for a race.

I thought it would be more obvious that the name is a joke.

I had a moment of braindeath, and I couldn't think of anything.

[Gnorman]

I mean I guess "Flying Nazis" is a little too on the nose, yes.

[name_here]

Why are they named after an ancient christian heresy?

[Aryxbez]

Maybe one should comment more on just the name? That said, I didn't notice the reference till someone pointed it out.

Anycase, the class variant seems redundant, as its only indicated by the race that you can't fly only in Med/Heavy Loads, not medium or heavy armor.

So, with all of that, do you guys think that the flight is acceptable? Also, would anyone ever take that feat?

The flight looks acceptable by some of the design criteria that was mentioned. It also seems to scale similar to when spell effect Fly comes into effect, so props there. As for the feat, in a non-tome environment "maybe" but unlikely.

Personally, I don't like the Stat mods, simply because they are a relic of design that seeks to limit what characters want to play. However I understand why did so, given want to make the race as "official" like but valid as possible.

[AndreiChekov]

Why are they named after an ancient christian heresy?

Why are they named after a tribe that invaded ancient India?
Should I mention that I watched Triumph of the Will before making this class?

Anycase, the class variant seems redundant, as its only indicated by the race that you can't fly only in Med/Heavy Loads, not medium or heavy armor.

Now that you mention it, I had intended to add medium and heavy armour as something in which one cannot fly, however, now that I think about it, that is stupid. Those restrictions never do any good for anyone. Perhaps as a lower level thing, for game balance, but I will have to SGT with a few classes before really considering that. My balance point was to make flight available at first level while still having the race do something in a cave. And on that note, I probably need to add a little more to it.

Personally, I don't like the Stat mods, simply because they are a relic of design that seeks to limit what characters want to play. However I understand why did so, given want to make the race as "official" like but valid as possible.

I agree with you there. Part of why the Raptorans became my favourite race was because they just didn't have stat modifiers. I was thinking to maybe add it as an optional thing for those Airians that are more in-tune with their elemental side. So, the more human ones have no modifiers, like humans, and the elemental ones have the modifier. Pick at character creation. Makes for more diversity, and still encourages some classes over others, but doesn't penalize someone wanting to be an Airian wizard.


Not responding to anyone here
While looking at the feat, and then looking at the fiendish and celestial feats that Frank and K made, I have decided to make it into a Bloodline feat instead. I know that not everyone supports those, but whatever, I don't care.

True Blood of the Elemental [Bloodline]
*You can only take this feat as a first level Airian
1HD: You become a full elemental gaining the elemental traits. (Immunity to poison, sleep, paralysis, and stunning; don't eat sleep or breathe; immune to crits and flanking; Can only be raised by a limited wish, wish, miracle, or true resurrection.)

6HD: You can use Whirlwind, as an air elemental of one size larger than you actually are. Usable 1/hour

11HD: Your fly speed increases to 100 ft. and perfect maneuverability

16HD: You can cast Ethereral Jaunt as a spell-like ability usable a number of times per day equal to 3 + Cha bonus(if any). Caster level = HD (Ethereal jaunt, because that is like turning into the air and walking through things and whatever.)

[Prak]

If you want a better, or at least, less... unfortunate name for the race, might I suggest Aeromen.

It's still kind of dumb, but at least it doesn't have phonetic similarities to Aryan.

[AndreiChekov]

If you want a better, or at least, less... unfortunate name for the race, might I suggest Aeromen.

It's still kind of dumb, but at least it doesn't have phonetic similarities to Aryan.

I've been playing around with a few.

- Aeries. You get the bird nest thing with all of the fun puns.

- Something to do with Hermes. I assume you know who he is.

- Plans for researching other gods from ancient cultures that involve flying.

- Just plain old fashioned Airfolk


Honestly though, Aryan was what the Nazis called the master race(apply as much sarcasm here as you think necessary), it doesn't mean that Aryans themselves are nazis.

[rasmuswagner]

Honestly though, Aryan was what the Nazis called the master race(apply as much sarcasm here as you think necessary), it doesn't mean that Aryans themselves are nazis.

"And my Swastika wrist tattooes are Hindu prosperity symbols, and the double lightning bolts are for Thor". just don't go there.

[Prak]

Yeah, I've already been down that road here. There is no good way to ask/suggest "hey, can we go back to the pre-nazi version of this thing?"

[AndreiChekov]

Honestly though, Aryan was what the Nazis called the master race(apply as much sarcasm here as you think necessary), it doesn't mean that Aryans themselves are nazis.

"And my Swastika wrist tattooes are Hindu prosperity symbols, and the double lightning bolts are for Thor". just don't go there.

And here I'm meant to troll by writing a prestige class for them that references German Luftwaffe.


On another note, if I call them Aeries, then I can make a race specific Champion of Aries prestige class. Then they can have bonuses for nest defending, probably still going to give a them a screech when diving, and their dedication to the god of war allows them to wield oversized weapons and slaughter 300 harpies with each swing of their sword-chain-thing.

[Whipstitch]

might I suggest Aeromen.

This is only acceptable if you're trying to see how long it takes your players to realize they're secretly in Mega Man 2.

[codeGlaze]

Name: NyanPCs

See more on Know Your Meme

...that image was bigger than I realized.

[Gnorman]

Re: naming issues

Cribbing from mythology is always a popular choice. From this Wikipedia article, we get some possibilities:

Harpy
Tengu
Garuda/Karura
Mercurian/Hermaphrodite
Aquilan (too similar to Howard)
Swift
Valkyrie (too much baggage)
Manu

Out of all of them, I kind of like Swift for (1) being short, catchy, and descriptive, (2) not having any significant real-world baggage that players might associate it with, like they would with Tengu or Harpy, and (3) actually being a fucking bird. Mercurian might be OK, too.

[Prak]

Hermaphrodite has too much baggage too. Especially once someone decides to name their character Doug Winger.

[Gnorman]

Hermaphrodite has too much baggage too. Especially once someone decides to name their character Doug Winger.

Welp, fuck you for making me Google that.

[AndreiChekov]

Rather than just changing the name, I went into the wild world of rewriting them to match their name after changing the name.

So, completely redid them into an Egyptian themed thing that most of you will hate.

The Irikara

According to Irikara legend, the world was created by two birds, Irik and Ara. The first of their kind formed were Thoth and Horus. When those to deities took flight, their feathers fell to the ground, and became the first Irikara. They call themselves Irikara to honor the creators of the world, and there are two lineages of Irikara, each one dedicated to their parent deity.

Irikara look almost identical to humans, except that they have wings. Those wings are either the wings of an ibis or the wings of a hawk. Hawk winged Irikara usually serve as warriors and leaders, and follow Horus. Ibis winged Irikara serve as sages, scribes, and other positions that require intelligence, and follow Thoth. While there is some rivalry between the two groups, it is not malicious.

They are led by a Pharaoh who has supreme command, he is always a Horusite, and the rising of the sun is attributed to him. Under him is a council of chiefs that rule their various tribes. They have one great city where the pharaoh resides.

Irikara use the same tables as humans for random race height, weight, and age. However, Irikara are extremely light, and weigh only half as a much as a human of the same size.

Mechanics
• Type Humanoid
• Land Speed of 30 ft.
• Size of medium
• Fly Speed: 30 ft. with average maneuverability Irikara cannot fly while carrying a medium or heavy load. Flying requires a standard action to maintain. From 3rd level onwards, flying no longer requires a standard action to maintain. At 6th level, their fly speed increases to 60 ft. with good maneuverability.
• Dark-vision out to 60 ft.
• Wing Aided Jump: Irikara can use their wings to boost their jumping, giving them a +10 racial bonus to jump checks.

Attributes of an Irikara of Thoth
Thoth, the god of knowledge granted his Ibis winged following great intellect, and the secrets of the Book of Thoth.
• +2 to Intelligence or wisdom (This is chosen at character creation, and can never be changed.)
• +2 racial bonus to knowledge checks. All knowledge skills are always class skills.
• +2 racial bonus to decipher script.
• Speak with Animals: Once per day, as a spell-like ability, an Irikara of Thoth can cast speak with animals, with a caster level equal to their hit die.
• Commune with Thoth: Beginning at 10th level, once per day, as a spell-like ability, an Irikara of Thoth can cast Commune with Thoth, with a caster level equal to their hit die. This spell functions the same way as a commune spell, except that it only allows contact with Thoth.

Attributes of an Irikara of Horus
Horus, the Sky, god of kingship and sun granted his falcon winged following the charisma to lead nations, and the freedom of the sky. He also gives them the powers of the Eye of Horus.
• +2 to Dexterity or Charisma (This is chosen at character creation, and can never be changed.)
• +10 movement speed in flight.
• Immunity to mind control.
• +2 sacred bonus to armour class against evil creatures.
• Fast healing = to ¼ of hit die, minimum 1.

[AndreiChekov]

Re: naming issues

Cribbing from mythology is always a popular choice. From this Wikipedia article, we get some possibilities:

Harpy
Tengu
Garuda/Karura
Mercurian/Hermaphrodite
Aquilan (too similar to Howard)
Swift
Valkyrie (too much baggage)
Manu

Out of all of them, I kind of like Swift for (1) being short, catchy, and descriptive, (2) not having any significant real-world baggage that players might associate it with, like they would with Tengu or Harpy, and (3) actually being a fucking bird. Mercurian might be OK, too.

And I suppose swift hookers are called swallows?

[Gnorman]

Re: naming issues

Cribbing from mythology is always a popular choice. From this Wikipedia article, we get some possibilities:

Harpy
Tengu
Garuda/Karura
Mercurian/Hermaphrodite
Aquilan (too similar to Howard)
Swift
Valkyrie (too much baggage)
Manu

Out of all of them, I kind of like Swift for (1) being short, catchy, and descriptive, (2) not having any significant real-world baggage that players might associate it with, like they would with Tengu or Harpy, and (3) actually being a fucking bird. Mercurian might be OK, too.

And I suppose swift hookers are called swallows?

If you're lucky. If you're not, they're called woodpeckers.

[deaddmwalking]

When describing the action to fly, you should specify what action flying is after 3rd level. I suppose it would be a move actuin?

[AndreiChekov]

When describing the action to fly, you should specify what action flying is after 3rd level. I suppose it would be a move actuin?

For clarity maybe, but once the need for a standard action is lifted, then they just have a fly speed, which is used with move actions according to the rules.

[OgreBattle]

Aireolas

[Prak]

Now I kind of just want to play a transmutation specialist wizard named Doug Winger...

[Aryxbez]

So, completely redid them into an Egyptian themed thing that most of you will hate.

Given I'm a slight fan of Hawkman/Hawkwoman from DCAU, I think its fine and cool conceptually.

For races, I think its cool they have scaling options per level. However they do seem a bit strong for a race, especially "Immunity to Mind Control" for Horus. Since AC bonus already exists for Gnomes/Dwarves, Fast Healing is so minor of a benefit it works for a racial benefit, and mostly be nice for low levels & post-battle healing (yay no wands needed if not in a hurry). Personally, I have no issues with just a straight, single stat bonus (My own games just let you choose one). For an "official" race I can understand the offering of a couple stats to choose, otherwise I'd keep it open. The Write-up is also really concise, so fine regards there as well.